Depression is associated with diabetes status of family members: NHANES (1999-2016)

The majority of the studies in this area focus on the psychological impact of having diabetic children or adolescents on parents, while a limited number of studies have investigated the effect of diabetes on the mental health status of family members in the general population. Thus, the aim of the current study is to explore the possible association between mental health disorders (depression, anxiety and panic) and diabetes status of family members among a national sample of adults in the United States.

Our analysis included 1,787 and 25,574 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 and 2005-2016, respectively. Diabetes status of family members was self-reported by the participants, and depression was assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in NHANES (1999-2004) and NHANES (2005-2016), respectively.

With NHANES (1999-2004) participants, logistic regression indicated a marginally significant association between depression and diabetes status of family members after multivariable adjustment (P = 0.07), and trend analysis suggested that participants who had more diabetic family members were at a higher risk of depression (P_trend < 0.01). We further validated these results using data from NHANES (2005-2016), which indicated diabetes status of family members was associated with both clinically relevant depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 10) and clinically significant depression (PHQ-9 ≥ 15) (P < 0.01).

The information about the mental health status of family members and the exact role of participants in caring for diabetic patients was inadequate.

A positive association between depression and diabetes status of family members was observed in the general population, suggesting that psychological interventions targeting the family members of diabetic patients are worthy of attention.